Villains Are Destined to Die

Chapter 5

I left the bathroom and quickly found myself a pen and paper. I was stuck as Penelope, and I had to find a way to survive. In hard mode, affection scores built up through considerable effort could plummet in a heartbeat. And when they dropped below zero, the result was death for the player.

The second son of the duke had started with an affection score in the negative, which meant that if I didn’t raise it to 0% or above, I would die no matter what.

I needed to compile everything I could remember about the game.

To my relief, though Penelope was an imposter, her room was still properly fitted out. I found a luxurious desk and bookcase to one side of the broad room. I went over immediately and sat at the desk, quickly dipping the pen in ink.

“First, the characters.”

There were five main male protagonists in the game: the duke’s two sons, the crown prince, a mage, and a knight. Their affection scores would all start at 0% or below in hard mode, whereas in normal mode they would start at 30%.

I began to write down everything I could remember on a blank sheet of paper.

First of all, there was Derrick Eckhart. He was the eldest son of the duke, a typical nobleman. He was busy learning to manage the house and paid little attention to Penelope. However, beneath the surface, he held a deep resentment and disdain for the girl who occupied his sister’s place. Derrick rarely killed Penelope himself in the game, but he did not hesitate to punish her harshly whenever she did something wrong. This resulted in penalties and restricted choices for the player, just like the way he’d confined me to my room yesterday.

Next, there was the second son: Reynold Eckhart. I didn’t even want to waste words on him. He acted first and thought later, not to mention he was equipped with a nasty temper. He invariably picked on Penelope whenever he saw her. Not only did he take the lead in harassing her in the duke’s household, he also always contributed to her dying of absurd causes.

“Hey, these two resemble the two assholes I have back at home,” I said, tutting as I looked over the information I’d written down so far.

These two were the easiest to win the game with in normal mode, since the relationship with them was not romantic in nature. Theirs was a familial love. Because Penelope wasn’t actually related by blood to either of them, the ending in this mode was likely to differ from the one in normal mode—which ended with all of them becoming a peaceful family.

I shook my head firmly and drew a huge X over each of their names even though I’d gone to the trouble of writing their information down.

“Those assholes are hopeless.”

Reynold had even started with a negative affection score. Not zero, but negative.

Why would that be the case? It was a hint from the developers. Since there was no hope to begin with, I was being told that I should not even attempt to pursue a happy ending with Reynold. I hated treating them like actual, respectable brothers anyway and decided to give up on them entirely.

“Next is the crown prince.”

The crown prince’s name was Callisto Regulus. I had no information about him except for what I’d learned in normal mode. In the game, the tyrant who cared little for other people’s lives because of an unfortunate childhood met the angelic female protagonist, who changed him. Then he killed the villain, Penelope. It was justice, of course, but from Penelope’s perspective the crown prince was an angel of death.

He had actually killed her the most often when I had played in hard mode. I’d reset the game so many times while going the crown prince route that I couldn’t really remember any details.

“I’m going to stay away from him.”

I remembered the many graphic illustrations of my head being cut off by Callisto’s sword. I felt chills run down my body.

Scritch.

I crossed out the crown prince’s name multiple times and hurried onto the next male protagonist.

Next was Winter Verdandi, a marquis and mage. As with most mages in games like this, he was a weirdo who hid his identity as a marquis while he operated a merchant guild. He traded in secretive objects for the black market and various kinds of information. It was access to this information that led him to discovering that the female protagonist was actually the duke’s lost daughter. He continued to gather information about the evil schemes of the villain after that, warning her or intervening himself, and was quite helpful in increasing the female protagonist’s reputation.

In normal mode, Winter was a sweet man who used romantic spells and did everything he could behind the scenes to help her. I couldn’t really remember what he’d been like in hard mode, though. I’d died repeatedly to the crown prince and the duke’s sons before I could interact with him. He had more potential than the two sons, so I left him as an open option for now.

“Finally, Eckles.”

Eckles, a knight of the duke’s house, had originally been a slave. The duke was going to visit a friend at night when he noticed Eckles, a slave talented with the blade. The duke had paid a high price and made Eckles an apprentice knight in his house. He later became the youngest swordmaster ever to exist, a model “young and handsome” type who made his own fortune.

Currently, Eckles was the most promising of the five. He had been the only male protagonist who’d pitied Penelope to the end of normal mode. Perhaps because of his sense of honor toward the mistress he’d once served, he’d been the least aggressive in dissuading Penelope from her ploys against the female protagonist. I’d never even encountered him in hard mode, of course...

“Ha... Come to think of it, I don’t know if he’ll actually be useful,” I said with a deep sigh as I looked down at the piece of paper.

My information about hard mode was extremely limited, as I’d never really gotten far. And even if I had more information, I had no idea how the situation I found myself in actually corresponded with the game’s mechanics.

One thing I could be sure of, though, was that I would die when the male protagonists’ affection scores fell below zero and that I had a limited time to find a good ending. I would have to finish the game before Penelope’s coming-of-age ceremony by means of one of the five protagonists as that ceremony was where the duke’s actual daughter made her first appearance.

Poor Penelope.

She lost everything on the day she became an adult due to the sudden discovery of the duke’s real daughter. That was also the starting point of normal mode. If I failed to win the heart of one of the five by then, they would fall in love with the female protagonist and I would likely be killed by one of them, even if I did nothing wrong. There was no guarantee, of course, that they wouldn’t do that earlier.

“I can’t die...”

I gritted my teeth at my gloomy prospects.

No. I couldn’t die.

I’d only just made my escape from that horrible family house. I couldn’t die inside this stupid game!

“I refuse to die,” I said.

My morning classes were waiting for me. I would go back to my real home, alive and kicking. I stared into space and told myself over and over that I would survive, no matter what. That was when someone knocked twice on the door.

Knock, knock.

I couldn’t even hide my notes about the game before the door flew open.

“My lady,” said a venerable, white-haired butler. He didn’t come into the room, choosing instead to state his business at the doorway. “The duke wants to see you.”

I doubted he could read what I’d written, but I was offended by his rude behavior. There had been a valet of sorts at my father’s house. He hadn’t liked me much, granted, but he hadn’t ever opened my bedroom door without my permission. Not only that, this game was set in a classist society, not a democracy. The butler’s behavior was inexcusable.

As I wondered if I should lash out at him, the white rectangle slid into view again.

1. (Throw an object at the butler.) How dare you open my bedroom door without permission! Do you value your life so little, old man?

2. Tell him to come himself if he has something to say!

3. (Glare at him for five seconds before standing up) All right.

Ah.

I’d forgotten again. I could do nothing of my own free will in this game, including getting angry at someone... I didn’t want to behave as aggressively as the first choices, so I forced myself to choose the third option. Affection score be damned, I had to do something about these dialogue choices first.

“All right.”

I guessed it was a good thing the duke was looking for me.

Pushing my notes deep inside a drawer, I stood up and followed the butler. Everything I knew about the mansion had been from brief scenes in the game, so I studied my surroundings carefully as I walked.

The mansion was enormous, something one would expect to see in a movie set in modern Europe, perhaps. Penelope’s room was on the second floor. The day was just beginning, and the mansion was humming with activity. While we moved down the central stairway, we passed quite a few of the servants as they rushed along the corridors.

They threw unpleasant looks at me as they passed, but I ignored them calmly. I was used to this sort of treatment from my experiences in the real world. I wasn’t even upset.

The butler, having led me to the first floor, soon stopped in front of an ornate door. This appeared to be the duke’s office.

Knock, knock.

“Your Grace, I have brought Lady Penelope.”

“Come in.”

The door creaked as the butler pushed it open, and I tensed a little as I stepped inside.